Wednesday, April 26, 2017

It was a pretty mean weekend, but I'll highlight the week first. I got to work with Elder Flake this week and it was heaps cool to see how much we've grown since way back when. Brotherhood feel strong.

I learned a lot about testimony this weekend. We had Elder Snow (the Church Historian and member of the Seventy) as well as Brother Nielson (assistant Church Historian and Managing Director of Church History) along with their wives spend two hours with us during our Special Training. From everything they shared with us, it was evident of how strong of a testimony they have. They love the Gospel and working with Church artifacts only strengthens it.

Fun facts:

1. There are eight Quorum's of the Seventy. Two Quorum's are General Authorities and the other six are Area Authorities.

2. 28% of the original Book of Mormon manuscript still exists today

3. For many questions, there are Gospel Topic Essays on lds.org to help answer them

Something Elder Snow shared with us is that prayer and scripture study will make the difference. Those two are probably the biggest habits that we build as missionaries and I'm trying to solidify them so that they remain strong. A common theme between the Nielsons and the Snows was the Book of Mormon and remembering, specifically how merciful the Lord has been. We must remember what brought us to where we are now and what caused our testimony to grow. Sister Snow knows that the Book of Mormon is scripture because as her perspective changes, different verses specifically apply to her life.

Then we got to hear from Elder Cardon in Stake Conference. We were very privileged to hear from him 3 times. He invited us to repent, and if we knew not of, pray to have the Lord tell us what. William McClellin's experience was shared, along with a story of President Eyring, explaining that even a man that humble turned to the Lord in knowing how he could be refined. It was really cool to hear from someone who meets with the Prophet and Apostles regularly. He knows how real the Gospel is and shared a few examples from his own family in teaching us about principle, doctrine, and application.

President Checketts taught that a testimony should be mainly based on feeling and then gave 10 things that we can do to be "decatha-Saints". In short, daily scripture study, fasting with meaning, retire and arise early, be essentially a happy person, work hard, focus on how I serve not where, love everyone and serve them, unify myself and others, and share my testimony. I love our Mission President.

Last week of the transfer. Big news coming.

Love you's heaps!

Elder Muh

She had no idea what "caramel walls" were, but fun to have Starbucks down under

Monday, April 17, 2017

Yup this week flew. We had two trade-offs, interviews, and then Easter weekend. We're trying to stay on top of the organization in our area while still serving the Zone and working with the Elders in it.

I forgot to take a picture on one of the trade-offs, but I got to serve with Elder Galarion. We came in together and had a trade-off our second transfer of the mish way back when. It was cool to see that progression. He's pretty confident in talking so it was cool to work off of each other. We were waiting for a train at one point, and he said hi to the cops so we had a quick conversation with a police officer who turned out to be Samoan. Pretty funny.

My second trade-off was with Elder Enkhtuya who is from Mongolia. I served in the Newcastle North Zone the same time as him. It's always fun to talk to him and see what Mongolia is like. A lot of people headed out this weekend, so there weren't tons at home or about, but we had some good talks with peeps headed to the Easter Show in the city.

Easter was good. I was asked to speak on a talk entitled The Atonement Covers All Pain and so I got to spend the week reflecting on the Atonement and how I would present my talk. It was good to focus on the true meaning of the holiday (like Christmas) and not all the chocolate on special at Coles.

Another busy week upcoming. We have a 5 Zone Special Training with Elder Snow, the Church Historian, as well as Stake Conference this weekend and Elder Cardon from the Area Presidency will be visiting, so it should be good.

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh

P-Day at Krispy's take 2

Ball is life

Found me a left-hand drive pure American truck

Exchange with Elder Enkhtuya

Blue Mountains P-Day yesterday (more to come today)

Teaching the 10 year olds in Primary

Claremont, Mincho, and Leura Elders at the top

Lookout of Wentworth Falls

Some new missionaries came in this week so President had to move a few around. You'll never guess who our new flat mate is. Elder Flake!

Monday, April 10, 2017

Wow okay so this week went by really fast. I feel like this one could be really long (as usual) so I'll try to stay focused. I'm gonna backtrack and fill you in on a few things before I start talking about the first experience.

About a year ago, my companion and I got a call from the Assistants. We were struggling to find new investigators and weren't having much success. They wanted to go on a trade-off us with us and we were terrified. Fast forward a year, and I was so stoked to go on exchanges with the Assistants. Haha time flies. The last time I was on a trade-off in the Greenwich Ward area was about a year ago right before Easter, so it was way cool to be back. Lastly, before I trained Elder Flake, Elder Ball (Mandarin speaking, but we came to Australia together) and I were supposed to be temporary comps before our new ones arrived, but I ended up staying with Elder Lamipeti for those couple days. It took a while, but we finally got it!

So the Assistants are one of three companionships serving on Macqaurie University. Their area is basically a loop from the bus stops/train station to the uni campus. And they find there all day. We street contacted for about 6.5 hours that day and it was wayyy cool. The students would stop to talk to us, which I feel has never happened to me before. I learned so much that day, and gained heaps of confidence. One thing we worked really hard on was asking and listening, so that our response/teaching would be genuine. It felt much easier to teach them because we were similar ages and could relate much more. I think the funniest thing would be when Elder Ball was teaching in Chinese and Australians would walk by double taking. The gift of tongues is real.

And then General Conference. I still don't know which talk was my favorite, because a whole bunch of them gave me ideas as to how I can improve as a missionary and as a leader. We had an investigator at the Sunday Afternoon Session and during Elder Costa's talk, he was locked in. Afterwards, he asked me who can baptize. The brothah totally feels the Spirit, it's mean.

There were some things that I noticed, and I'll start will Elder Bednar to do so. He always prays the Spirit will be with him. I find that super humbling because he's an Apostle of the Lord, but prays for it every single time. He also repeats things for emphasis. "All things are brought together in one in Christ" is something he told us in our Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. Some others things talked about more than once were Conference being held in Salt Lake City, no football on Sunday, "which light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day", The Living Christ, hymns being used as a base for a talk, "the more excellent way", people attending the session in which they are being talked about, "the rising generation", something Bruce R. McConkie said, How Firm a Foundation verses 1, 2, 3, & 7 (Elder Bednar's favorite arrangement and the way MoTab always sings it) and Elder Aidukaitis (closing prayer of the closing session) who is known in our family for saying "one must not roam through the garbage".

Great stuff. Loved Conference and excited for the May Ensign to come. Two trade-offs this week, let's geet it!

Love you's!

Elder Muh

Trade-off with Elder Ball

The lolly line-up for the weekend

The Penrith Zone! (Elder Tahere is behind me in the orange tie and Elder Lutovio is far back left. They've been my first two trade-off comps, but we failed to take pics. Elder Lutovio is from the same Stake as Elder Young Yen, whose sister arrived in our mission this transfer.)

Sunday, April 2, 2017

This week was preeetty packed. Monday afternoon we had touch footy which had a solid turn-out. Good opportunity. Tuesday was MLC, which was cool to see the other leaders and also how the entire mission in doing at the moment. The focus is really helping our new investigators progress towards coming to church through the help of members. Elder Maea and I decided to train on extending clear commitments and having effective follow-up, which we did in our District (Minchinbury) on Wednesday and then Penrith District on Thursday.

It was pretty awesome bc on our first day, we felt that's what our focus needed to be this transfer and MLC just helped to confirm that. I honestly feel like that can make the difference. We can teach with sooo much power, but if we don't follow up on what we taught/committed, the progression will still be slow. PMG talks about not following up being like buying a ticket and not going inside, making the commitment hollow, which we really liked. Follow ups are key!

The Brybag's are... going. Sue is so ready, but isn't gonna enter without Gus. And he totally knows it's true. He prayed during our lesson this week and the sincerity was so real. He described to us that he's on a cloud and is just waiting for the right spot to jump off. He'll get there.

Kaoline is doing awesome as well. She basically understands everything, but is just trying to work out coming to church. We picked up some Tongan pamphlets for her as well. Hopefully she can attend a session of Conference this weekend!

We have a trade-off scheduled for each of the Elders in the Zone, as well as one with the Assistants this week, so the transfer is pretty busy. Since my second transfer on the mish, I've only had 1-2 trade-offs per transfer, but I'm pretty excited to work with each companionship and learn from them all.

I worked with Elder Tahere (NZ) this weekend and we did a lot of finding. There wasn't much success, and towards the end of the trade-off, I was really praying that we'd have an opportunity to capitalize on. Of course the Lord delivered. Met this dude at the train station who had just returned from holiday in Hawaii the night before. Yozah! I asked what he had planned for the weekend and he said strengthening his connection with God and Jesus Christ. The man! Haha blessings.

A member of Minchinbury lived in Hawaii for a bit (he had his parents visiting who are living in Orem rn) and he made some huli huli chicken this weekend. Taste of home! There were 6 ordinances along with the sacrament yesterday, 3 confirmations and 3 baby blessings. Fam on fam! One family that was visiting was actually from Ewa Beach and yo he totally reminded me of Uncle Earl! Haven't heard the pidgin in so long!

Great weekend. Great things to come!

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh

I bet you didn't know these places existed here! #pdayshennanigans

Elder Tito finishes this transfer, got to see him at MLC

Unfortunately they didn't answer the door #moo

Fun street to tract!

Post MLC GoPro shot

SO. The Sisters had 3 baptisms this weekend #lit. Little man Samisoni was supposed to have his

Uncle baptize him, but he got called into work, so last minute they asked one of the missionaries to do it and... first time for me!

I think it's gotten progressively harder to leave my areas. In Taree, I felt greatly appreciated, but in Gosford, I felt loved. I knew most of the members in Gosford pretty well, so that was a hard one. The transition week is always a tough one, trying to adapt to the new area and get a bunch of names down. BUT. This place is solid. It's nice to see some Poly's again. The Ward is probably just over half Poly and they are way cool. There's also like part-member families on fleek. And this is probably the most solid teaching pool I've had. Big ups to the missionaries who worked hard before us.

Elder Maea's organized touch footy on Monday's and we're gonna try solidify basketball Friday's, which we started up last week. It's huge for the members and especially less-actives. I've been told we get some non-members too. Mean. He's on his last transfer, so we got five weeks left. He's served around these ways a lot of his mission and has connections for days. But man he's solid. It's been fun to train find with him because he's super confident. I also did what he calls split finding for the first time in my mission. Basically we each go and talk to somebody different. It was pretty crazy at first, but a huge confidence builder for me.

So with the blessed investigators, we have a family (yup, a F A M I L Y) named the Brybag's. They've been taught for a little over a year and a half by eight different missionaries. The wife, Sue, is ready to be baptized, knows it's true and everything. The husband, Gus, knows it's good, but hasn't quite got that confirmation yet. He committed to baptism, but not to a date yet. Apparently he had never before committed, so that's massive. They have a 10 year old son and a 7 year old son who turns 8 in June. So we'll see what happens there!

We also have a Tongan lady named Kaoline who is keen for baptism but just needs to come to church a couple more times. We taught her the Word of Wisdom with a Tongan member fellowship and she was already living it! She's been prepared like crazy.

So we have MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and will most likely visit the Districts and give a training this week. Stoooked!

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh

Bishop Dumas and his wife along with one of their sons (they have another son and a daughter)

Last supper with the Pettet family (converts of about 10 years and they are sooo solid)

We had two mini missionaries from our Ward get set apart the night I arrived, so we made them mission calls. One of them is serving in Gosford with Elder Heu and his comp!

There was a pretty big storm this week (it hailed!) and trees fell down everywhere. Apparently Western Sydney got it worst. The poor fence.

Went to a $10 cook-your-own-steak place where you could stack your plate with chips and other random sides (not gonna lie it was pretty good) and then Thai for lunch the next day